game night
by hiyoris-scarf
Summary: a bet is made.


"Go to bed."

_"Nooooo."_ Gon rolled onto his back, curling up like a very whiny pillbug. "I'm not _tiiiiired_."

"It's 11:30," Kurapika said in a final tone. "You and Killua should have been asleep hours ago."

"We don't need a bedtime," Killua said grouchily. "We're not _babies_, Kurapika."

Leorio licked his thumb and ruthlessly scrubbed a smudge of chocolate off Killua's cheek.

"Could have fooled me," he said, laughing over Killua's protests. "Go wash your faces and get in bed, or we'll tell Mito how you behave when she's not here."

Killua, grumbling the entire time, hauled Gon off the floor and out of the living room. A few minutes later, Kurapika and Leorio heard the sink running, along with a burst of giggles and loud splashes.

"We're going to have to dry the floor," Kurapika noted as the water fight escalated in both volume and intensity.

Leorio groaned. "I hate babysitting."

Kurapika smirked. "As if you aren't the biggest baby of all."

"Mean!"

Kurapika ignored him, folding up the_"_Sorry!" game board and placing it back in the box.

"If I had won that round, I would have made you promise not to insult me for a whole week," Leorio said. "You couldn't do it. You'd explode."

"I would not explode."

"You _would_."

Kurapika huffed through his nose.

"Fine," he grunted. "Want to bet on that?"

Leorio sat up very straight, and Kurapika could have sworn his ears perked up.

"Interesting," Leorio said, eyes glinting.

Kurapika, belatedly recalling Leorio and gambling didn't mix well, wondered if it was too late to backtrack.

"What do you get if I lose?" Leorio inquired.

"That's a secret," Kurapika said haughtily, hoping it wasn't obvious that he hadn't thought this through. Leorio raised an eyebrow.

"Well in that case, mine's a secret too."

"But you just said—"

"I'm changing it." Leorio smiled, his eyes narrowing. "I wanna place a more interesting bet. And I also have a game in mind."

: : :

"I want to play something else."

"Because you're losing?"

Leorio gave him an arch look, which Kurapika returned with a freezing glare.

"No. And I'm _not_ losing."

To prove it, he snatched the tweezers from Leorio and dove for the heart. The buzzer blasted immediately, an ignoble declaration of defeat.

"Face it, Kurapika, Operation just isn't your game," Leorio drawled, looking, Kurapika thought, far too thrilled about it. He made another futile stab for a different organ, but the buzzer and blinking red light went off again.

He could barely even admit it to himself, but Leorio was right. He was awful at this game.

"I'm surprised you're so bad at this," Leorio said happily. He leaned back on his elbows, the Operation board sitting on the floor between them.

"Me and some buddies from the lab would get together on weekends to see how slobbering drunk we could get and still win this game. And here you are, sober as a bone and still losing to _me_."

"You're truly one of the great bastions of modern medicine," Kurapika sneered. "I shudder to imagine the fate of a patient under your care."

Leorio's lips twitched. "You're a sore loser, huh?"

"I haven't lost," Kurapika snapped.

"Give it time."

Seconds later, Leorio crowed in victory as he extracted the final game piece with an unnecessary flourish.

"Pay up, Kurta!" he said, gloating so hard Kurapika thought it must hurt.

"I want a rematch," he growled.

Leorio frowned. "Those weren't the rules."

"I'm changing the rules."

"Are you that scared of losing to me?"

Instead of answering, Kurapika snatched the tweezers away and dumped the game pieces haphazardly back into the board.

"Rematch," he said simply. Leorio sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"Fine, but it's not gonna go any better for you."

: : :

"It's rigged," Kurapika declared. "That's the only explanation."

Leorio looked at him, slightly hurt.

"C'mon, Kurapika, is it really unbelievable that I'm just better at this than you?"

"Yes."

Leorio winced at the lack of hesitation. Kurapika stared in blank defeat down at the Operation board, its red nose still flashing sadly.

"Listen." Leorio scooted himself up to a sitting position. His thigh grazed Kurapika's knee. "It's just a stupid game. It's fine. I'll be the Operation Grandmaster. You'll be the…uh…the guy who's good at everything except Operation."

Kurapika snorted. "Catchy."

Leorio's leg was pressed against his. Even through his pants, Kurapika felt the warmth of it.

"I'm just trying to soothe your pride, okay?" Leorio said, gesturing wildly. "Which, I might add, is really hard to do when it turns out I'm better than you at _one_ thing."

Kurapika's chest filled with an odd tingling.

"Only one thing?" he asked, quietly.

Leorio, who overflowed with reckless generosity and goodwill. Who effortlessly drew people to him like ants to sugar. Who did not know the meaning of rejection, not even when Kurapika had spelled it out for him in miserable, bloody letters.

Leorio thought he was better at only one thing.

Leorio's eyebrows drew together. "Well, yeah. Not to further inflate your ego, but you're kind of a genius, Kurapika. It's annoying as hell."

"No, I know that."

Leorio's ears turned red. "Then what'd you go and make me say it for, asshole?"

Kurapika's lips twitched. "Maybe that was me winning my bet."

And before Leorio could squawk in betrayal, he leaned in and kissed him.

"And maybe that was me, winning mine," Leorio murmured, pulling him down again.


End file.
